In a couple of weeks my son will be 11 months old, which means he's almost a year old, which means I have no excuse for still carrying around these extra pounds.

 A little back story:  I joined Weight Watchers in the fall of 2004.  I sure took my sweet time, but two and a half years later I had successfully taken off over 50 pounds.  I was so happy that I'd finally reached my goal weight, and so amazed that it was even possible.  And then, about three months later, I got pregnant.

I don't think I did too bad during the pregnancy - I gained 37 pounds, and considering how many times I ate at Burger King during the second trimester, I was more than happy with that.  But here we are, nearly 11 months later, and I've still got 15-20 pounds hanging around.  I admit that I haven't been as motivated, organized or determined to lose it as I'd like to be.  I haven't gone back to Weight Watchers meetings, I haven't made the time to exercise, and I've been giving in to the devil on my shoulder way too often.  What's the deal?  I wish I knew.  It seems like the things that worked for me the first time around aren't working now, and I don't have the time and/or motivation to try other things.  Part of me feels like, eh, this seems to be the weight my body is comfortable with, maybe this is where it's meant to stay, but the rest of me feels like, no way - I reached that elusive number once, and I'm going to do it again.

 I'm not going to turn this into a weight-loss blog; the world already has enough of those.  But I guess I hope that if I put it out there, get it on paper and acknowledge my struggle, maybe it'll help motivate me a little bit.  But I'd also love to hear from you, Milwaukee Moms:  What was your pregnancy/post-partum weight experience like?  Were you able to take if off?  What techniques did you use?  How has your body changed since you became a mom?

I recently went to Solly's for the first time.  I might get a big "duh" here, but that place is not child-friendly at all.  I was warned before we went that it is small inside, so I knew that our group of six adults and two children would probably not be able to eat together.  It doesn't help that we went during lunch on a Saturday.  They do have a sizable waiting area, so that was good.  As we sat there I couldn't help redesigning the place in my head, because it seems like they could have accomodated more people if things were arranged a little differently.  Anyway, I took our son to the bathroom to change him, but they had no baby changing station (though I think there would be room for one), so I changed him on the bathroom floor.  When we were seated we were lucky enough that three of our group got to sit together at the counter, and the other three (and the two kids) at the one table they have next to the waiting area.  When I asked about a high chair I got a "No, sorry,"  so I went out to the car and got Henry's infant car seat for him to sit in.  (We switched to a convertible car seat last week, so that wouldn't even be an option now.)  I ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a hot fudge shake.  Apparently it was a good thing that I sat at the lone table, because my friends who sat at the counter said they could see the blocks of butter by the grill and watch just how much the cooks were using on each order, and that it was a little disturbing.  I'm more in the 'you can't have too much butter' camp, though, so maybe I wouldn't have been bothered by it. Our food arrived, and the (in)famous butter burger was pretty good, but I can't say it was worth almost $5.00.  And the small plate of crinkle cut fries was - What?  Really? - an extra $2.50.  The shake, also pricey at $4.50, was so delicious it was worth every penny, and so large that I couldn't even finish it.  And my friend said that her onion rings were really good.  Overall, I thought that Solly's was overcrowded, overpriced, and overrated.  But I know that it's a beloved Milwaukee institution, and I will probably give it another shot sometime.  Maybe when Henry's old enough not to need a dang high chair.  It would be awfully hard to hold a kid and eat a butter burger at the same time.